11/02/2014 BBC News at One

The wettest winter for 250 years. More people are forced to leave

their homes and the Met Office says there's more wind and rain to come.

The Thames Valley is hardest hit. 1600 troops are on stand-by but some

residents expressed anger that not enough is being done to help. We

need the army, we need more bodies. We have 100 volunteers but we are

amateurs. I am scared that we will mess up. I've will be reporting live

from Wraysbury on Berkshire on the River Thames, where the army has

just arrived to help flood that is. -- I. Levels on the River Severn are

expected to rise even higher but resources are stretched to the

limit. Visiting some of the worst hit

areas, the Prime Minister warns it will take time before things get

back to normal. We will have the latest on the flood

crisis and those warnings from the Met Office in our weather forecast.

Also this lunchtime, profits drop at Barclay's Bank but the bank still

pays an average ?60,000 in staff bonuses. Down to the wire as Team

GB's Katie Summerhayes qualifies for the final of the women's freestyle

skiing styles Liber then. Hollywood's biggest ever child

star, Shirley Temple, has died at the age of 85.

Later on BBC London: With 500 roads aross Surrey under

water and the Thames still rising, we speak to the Environment Agency.

The next 48-hour Tube strike is off as a last-minute deal is agreed.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One. Once again, it is

raining in many parts of the UK, adding to the misery of thousands of

people whose homes are either flooded or at risk from flooding. 14

severe flood warnings are still in place in Berkshire and Surrey and

two in Somerset. There are warnings that another inch of rain could fall

today and another major storm is forecast to batter Britain tomorrow.

The Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, said this morning the

Government did have a grip on the situation but that it was dealing

with an enormous force of nature. This lunchtime, we will be with our

reporters across the flooded areas with all the latest, but first,

let's cross to Ben Brown who is a Wraysbury in Berkshire. Yes, this is

one of the very pretty streets in Wraysbury. It has been turned into a

river, as you can see behind me. Ed Miliband is just down there but

now, paying a visit to see what is happening with flood victims. Lots

of parts of this village have been evacuated. People have left their

homes, abandoned them, but others in this village and other communities

up and down the Thames are refusing to leave their houses. They say they

want to stay and protect their properties. In the last few

minutes, the army has arrived in Wraysbury to try to help to see what

they can do, and so have thousands of sandbags, so, at last, people say

in this village, they are starting to get the help they really need.

Little defences to hold back an enormous flood. This is what the

people here have been asking for. Sandbags and as many of them as

possible. Most of the effort so far has been local people doing what

they can for the community. We have people coming from the Isle of Wight

to help us, we have the RSPCA helping us but we don't have the

Environment Agency. We need the army, we need more bodies. We have

100 volunteers but we are amateurs. I am scared we will mess up. Over

the last few hours, that number has now risen to 500. And it is not just

the locals. This man travelled here from Essex. I have a young family so

I might need to get back to them. But I will be here all day. I'm

going to be getting sandbags to areas. And Ed Miliband has come to

see for himself. I think it is clear the game is now being raised in

terms of the help being provided and that is obviously important, but it

is also important we make sure the necessary effort is being made to

help people in this area and other areas like it. The RSPCA is also

having to help quite a few people. Rescues of both people and animals.

More so people than animals but we have been just offering our services

to help people be evacuated. A different county, the same images.

From Somerset to Bob Boxer, the military have come. Police and the

local authorities in the lead but supported by government money, the

military, where the military have a combo all contribution to make.

Resources will be made available but we are dealing with a very, very

extreme weather event. The Thames is a walk down this street behind me

and it shows no signs of stopping. Hundreds of people have had to be

moved from their homes and hundreds more may have to do the same over

the next few days. So, flooding up and down the Thames

in Surrey and Berkshire. 14 severe flood warnings along the Thames.

Let's go to another part of the river, Marlow, and our correspondent

is there for us. The River here is very high and fast flowing. Some

residents have said they have not seen it like this in 40 years. The

crypt of the church is flooded here and across from me, in apartments

entirely underwater. Another part of the river is with sandbags. Normally

the water levels between the River here, beside the weir, there should

be able drop and there isn't, and that is causing growing concern. A

short time ago I've met one couple who have been watching the water

rising around their home. Mary and Lewis returned home from a

holiday from South America days ago to find the front of their property

flooded. Since then, water levels have been creeping up and they are

expecting worse to come. You can see the houses entirely surrounded from

inside. That garden is flooded and they have been putting up furniture

and curtains to keep the water out and also protecting the legs of the

furniture in case more water comes in. They have already had some

flooding in the kitchen at the back. The fitted carpet will have to be

taken up in the water has now come into the garage, too. There is

nowhere for it to drain away too. They have put power cables on bricks

to keep them dry so there is still electricity to the fridge and

heating, even though they were to leave the house -- fridge and

heating. Even though they were asked to leave, they have stayed put. It

is not just what is happening today. It is what is happening further up

the river and that will reach us in two days time here, you see. So we

just have to live for each day and hope it doesn't get any worse. Now,

residents that want to leave have been offered help. This couple chose

not to do so. The problem is not just the river is self but the

ground water. It is just not being able to soak away to go off the land

away from those homes. Fire crews have set up on Sunday trying to move

the water away from some of the most vulnerable homes there. -- have set

up pumps and are trying. Let's move away from the Thames and go to

another part of the country, to Worcester, where residents are

watching anxiously the river levels of the River Severn. The bridge that

is such an arterial route into this city is currently partially open and

the sun has come out, though we have had torrential rain here this

morning. It could be just a brief respite for a city bracing itself

against more flooding. 150 years of history under eight

feet of water. This is the cricket ground at Worcester after the River

Severn burst its banks. For the most part, it is business as usual in the

city. It has a long history of flooding and its people have learned

to live with the highs and lows of the river that runs through its

centre. Keeping traffic flowing across the city is essential for the

business community. Yesterday, the main bridge was closed for several

hours. And it may yet be closed again. And that owns a hairdressers

near the river bank and is feeling the impact. -- and net. It is fully

difficult, especially being so close to the river anyway. You never know

how long the river will be up for. It could be a few days, it could be

a week, the impact could be quite big. And honestly with clients not

being able to get here or whatever, your income is based on them

anyway. -- and obviously. And with the recession as well, it is a

double whammy. Some businesses have had to close. There will be no

taking that this pub today. Flood water is being pumped from the

premises. In 2007, record flooding affected more than 10,000 homes

across Worcestershire and neighbouring Gloucestershire. Water

levels have not yet reached those heights but heavy rain fell this

morning and Environment Agency officials are monitoring the

situation. There is a second high water level coming down the river

for tomorrow. We estimate that will be about the same as in 2007. We

have got reports of about 100 properties along the length of the

River Severn that have flooded. Flood defences have been installed,

protecting an estimated 1300 houses. This bank was created as part of a

?20 million response to the 2007 floods which caused havoc here.

Without it, almost certainly the houses in this road would be flooded

by now. And the city holds its breath, waiting to see what the next

few days will have in store. And the latest information we have is that

the River Severn is expected to peak on Thursday morning and at levels

higher than in 2007. The defences are expected to hold but it is quite

likely that the all-important bridge across the city of Worcester will

close again. Many thanks. Sian Lloyd reporting there. Here in Wraysbury

in Berkshire on the River Thames, it has been raining all morning. The

rain, thankfully, has stopped now, but much more is forecast in the

coming days. Indeed in the coming weeks. So it looks like these

floodwaters are going to continue to rise.

Many railway lines are underwater, causing more travel disruption for

thousands of commuters. Our transport correspondent is in

Datchet inbox. Just how bad is it? Well, we will show you in a minute.

We will spin the camera around. They are facing two major problems. The

first is the floodwater coming off the river. The Thames is just over

there. That is the station and you can see the water between the

rails. Let's spin the camera around. This is the line that goes from

Windsor to London. Effectively completely flooded. You can drive

the train if you can see the tracks, even if they are under water, but

not here, because that is electrified, so obviously it is not

safe. The second problem is bigger. You are looking at railway engineers

looking at signal boxes and equipment. That is just outside

Maidenhead. It is the ground water coming up and you cannot protect

against it. You cannot put sandbags down to stop ground water coming

in. That affected the signals on one of the busiest lines going out from

Paddington, down the route to Maidenhead and further out West.

What they have had to do is get the trains through without the signals.

A driver takes a token, drives through the difficult bit, hand it

over to a member of Network Rail, gives it to the next driver who

comes through. You cannot drive unless you have the token. And that

is the way they keep the system safe when they don't have signals. So

what we're being told at the moment, yes, the floodwater is bad, but it

is the ground water coming up and you cannot protect against that. And

that is what they are worried about. How long will it take before things

get back to some sort of normality? You could be talking weeks or

months, which is bad news for commuters. What they have to do is

wait for the water to go and then they have to check what the damage

is. They don't know if the barristers coming away from the

tracks underneath. So we could be faced with weeks, if not months, of

slow line services, closures overnight, engineers going in, to

look at the bank events and make sure those lines are safe enough for

faster trains. -- look at embankments. So it is bad news for

commuters for weeks, even months. David Cameron has spent the morning

in Polish in Devon, where the main railway line into Cornwall was

washed away earlier this month. He said the Government was united in

its attempt to tackle the flooding affecting large parts of southern

England. Everybody needs to get on with the vital work of bringing all

the nation's resources to get out of road and rail moving, to help people

who have been flooded, to plan for the future and to learn all the

lessons of the very difficult situation we are in. That's what

everyone's needs to do, that's what is going to happen in the days and

weeks ahead. Let's talk to Norman Smith in Westminster. The switch of

the blame game in the last few days to this talk of help? That is right.

Normal politics has been put on hold as politicians become acutely aware

of the depth of the crisis. The number of people affected, how long

it is likely to go on for. And in the wake of yesterday's very

unseemly finger-pointing, it is clear Mr Cameron has told some of

his more belligerent ministers to rein it in. The likes of Ed Miliband

went out of his way this lunchtime to praise the response to the

crisis. And I think there is a general view that what this crisis

is is way beyond the normal ebb and flow of daily politics. And to some

extent, that is underlined by the fact that the Prime Minister will be

giving one of his red Downing Street press conference is on the floods

crisis. The last one he gave was more than a year ago. -- rare. But

that typifies how this has become a national event, a national situation

which goes beyond the normal business of daily politics Minister

has pretty much cleared his diary. He has been out for the past 48

hours visiting flood victims and then he is back for the press

conference and then he has a meeting with COBRA. The sense that

Westminster is that there has been a collective intake of breath amongst

the political classes and the view that, while there are many questions

to ask about possible budget cuts, about leadership, about whether

people were too slow to respond, now is not the time for those sorts of

questions and such is the depth of the crisis that everyone now has to

focus on coming up with practical solutions to help those affected.

Thank you. You can find out more about the flooding on the BBC News

website. And there are, of course, updates on your BBC local radio and

television stations. Our top story this lunchtime: More

heavy rain and strong winds is being forecast for the UK, bringing yet

more misery for thousands of people whose homes are at risk from

flooding. I am here at the Winter Olympics in

Sochi where Katie Summerhayes has been going for gold.

Keeping the spirit of London 2012 alive, students from Egypt visit the

capital for lessons from Olympic medallists.

Their profits may be down but that hasn't stopped Barclays increasing

its staff bonuses. The bank has seen its pre-tax profits drop by a third

to ?5.2 billion but it's handing more than half of that in bonuses to

staff. It's also announced further job losses. Simon Gompertz reports.

It is the bank which didn't have to be rescued by the taxpayer but

Barclays has been tainted by a succession of scandals and now it

risks further criticism by piling on bonuses for its prized investment

bankers while it is still picking up the pieces from the financial

crisis. Profits last year were down by nearly a third at ?5.2 billion

but bonuses rose 10%, the majority to risk-taking investment bankers.

We don't think investment banking per se damages the reputation of

Barclays. What enhances or can potentially damage is the way we do

business. Barclays traders were the first to be pilloried for attempting

to change the LIBOR rate. The scandal over mis-selling payment

protection insurance and mis-selling to small businesses, all as they

have been trying to cut costs. It is true hundreds of others will be

senior investment bankers, even so Barclays has a job on its hands

persuading staff and customers that now is the right time to increase

bonuses for high flyers. Making bank practices look right is the job of

Richard Lambert, a senior city figure setting up a body to improve

standards and training. Lots of products have been mis-sold, clients

have been done -- badly dealt with. There has been fraud. Barclays' new

chief executive says he wants his to be the go to bank but he admits

there is still a long way to go. A planned 48-hour strike on the

London Underground has been called off. It was due to run from this

evening until Thursday in a row over ticket office closures. The strike

was suspended after talks at the conciliation service, ACAS.

Security officials have confirmed to the BBC that a man who carried out a

suicide bombing in Syria was British. The man, known as Abu

Suleiman Al-Britani, is believed to be from Sussex and videos posted

online purport to show him driving an armoured truck towards Aleppo

Prison last week, where it detonated in a massive explosion.

An 11-month-old girl in Lancashire has been mauled to death by a dog.

She was attacked late last night at a house in Blackburn and was taken

to hospital, where she died later. A man and woman, both in their 20s,

have been arrested. Our correspondent Judith Moritz reports

from in Blackburn. This is baby Ava-Jayne Marie Corless who died

last night after being mauled by a dog. She is being held by her mother

who is now under arrest along with her boyfriend under suspicion of

manslaughter. This is the house where the baby was mauled to death.

In the garden the cage has been left and the dog has been destroyed. The

police were called last night after the little girl was reported hurt

and she was taken to hospital nearby, but died of her injuries.

Neighbours spoke today of their shock but also said they had been

frightened of dogs which were kept at the house. A few times they came

into my garden and chased me and we were really scared. I saw police

vans arriving, we saw them being pulled out of the house handcuffed

and getting into the van. Police will examine claims that neighbours

had called the police about the dogs on previous occasions. Part of the

inquiry, we will look into the history of the dogs, the nature and

the breed of the dogs. At this moment in time it is early to

speculate. This morning crime officers arrived at the house whilst

away from the scene tests are being carried out on the dog to determine

its breed. Police have said that when Ava-Jayne Marie Corless was

attacked, she was asleep upstairs. Her mother and boyfriend were

downstairs. Today they will be questioned about the dog attacked by

detectives. At the Winter Olympics in Sochi,

Team GB's youngest member has been in action in the women's ski-slope

style event. Katie Summerhayes, who' 18 years old, qualified for the

final in third place. It all came down to the last two runs in a

dramatic final. Andy Swiss is in Sochi. Yes, Katie Summerhayes

started out on a dry ski slope in Sheffield, now one of the world's

top slopestyle skiers. Could Britain win their second medal of these

Winter Olympics? This time things didn't quite work out.

Katie Summerhayes brimming with confidence and going for glory, the

18-year-old had been hugely impressive in qualifying for the

slopestyle, but when it came to the final her hopes promptly took a

tumble. That fall in her first run meant it was all or nothing in her

second and this time she was much better. But still not good enough.

She finished in seventh place behind the winner, Canada's Dara Howell.

Obviously gutted. I skied really well in qualification which made me

feel good. It happens, everyone falls and I made two massive

mistakes. Earlier there was a reminder of the dangers of her

sport, horrible crash for this competitor from Canada, thankfully

she escaped serious injury. Britain's men's curling team have

been back in action, after one win and one defeat yesterday they were

up against Germany in the round robin match but it turned into the

tightest of tussles, the result is heading down to the wire. There has

also been the first appearance of the biggest global staff at these

Olympic Games, Shaun White going for his third gold medal in a row in the

half pipe. The course has been reduced to slosh, but once again he

made it look so easy. A huge score, and confident of cementing his place

in Olympic history. Not exactly wintry here at the moment. There is

concern about the snow turning slushy, it was particularly sticky

for the snowboarders. In the curling match, Britain beat Germany 7-6 on

the very final stone. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess

of Cornwall have been visiting the BBC in central London as part of a

day celebrating British radio. They toured the newsroom at New

Broadcasting House, chatting to staff from the corporation's radio

stations. The tour finished with a performance in the radio theatre.

They're also visiting commercial radio stations.

Hollywood's most famous child star, Shirley Temple, has died at the age

of 85. Her career began when she was just four years old and she went on

to star in 43 feature films, but retired from the movie world at just

22, going on to an active career in politics. David Sillito looks back

at her life. With her ringlets, dimples and

talent, Shirley Temple was a child starts with out equal. Indeed she

was Hollywood's biggest star in the late 30s. Her innocent charm was box

office magic. But her mother, Gertrude, had started her out in the

less than wholesome baby left -- burlesques she was only for the

time. But it wasn't long before she got to show off her talent for

dancing. Her popularity saved the Fox Studios from bankruptcy and her

cheery optimistic films were an escape from the hard times of the

1930s. Surely has got her first car, it is a great joy but she is only

allowed to run it inside the studio grounds. She appeared to have

everything. She even had her own Baby Oscar. Watch didn't have were

friends her own age. Mummy, can I go home now? When she missed out on the

Wizard of Oz to Judy Garland it was the beginning of the end of her

career and her wealth, she was just 12. Out of the 3 million dollars I

had earned from everything, I had $44,000 left in a trust account and

I don't... I wasn't upset, I was shocked. After her first marriage

failed and her career stalled, she remarried and later re-emerged into

public life. I'm dedicating my life and my energies to public service

because I think our country needs it now more than it ever has before. I

want to help. Shirley Temple Black moved into politics. During her

career she became an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia as well as

the White House chief of protocol. It was a startling reinvention but

whatever she did, for most people she will always be remembered as

America's little princess. Shirley Temple, who's died in

California at the age of 85. Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Nina Ridge. There is no letup in the weather over the next few

days. We have more heavy rain to come, there is likely to be snow in

some places, and gales. We are expecting further disruption due to

the weather over the next 24 hours, even into the weekend. The weather

system is clearing away, but we could see some rain and snow through

parts of England. It does become drier and brighter. Some of the

winter is could -- some of the showers could be wintry, even at

lower levels. Across the north-west of the UK, again a mixture of sleet

and snow. Some of those wintry showers feed further inland as we go

through the night, and again the risk of some snow across the

Midlands. It is going to be a cold night with temperatures falling down

to freezing, so the risk of eyes first thing tomorrow morning.

Quickly tomorrow we will be watching out for our next intense storm

system to arrive in off the Atlantic. The winds will start to

pick up, we will see a heavy swathe of rain. We will see some snow

mainly across the hills to the north, and some very strong winds.

Quite a non-pleasant data tomorrow, temperatures could reach up to 10

degrees but for many temperatures really struggling. The potential for

some disruption is the strength of the wind. For many places we will

see gusts of wind up to 60 mph. We could reach 80 around the coast of

England, stretching up into Wales and Northern Ireland. By Thursday,

it will stay with -- windy, there will be bright spells but frequent

and heavy showers which could be wintry. By the time we get to

Friday, another band of rain set to move up from the south. By the time

we add in the rain from the other days, these are the areas that are

likely to see the highest totals by Saturday. Another 60-18 millimetres

of rain. More details on our website. Now a reminder of our top

story this lunchtime. More rain has been falling across parts of the

UK, adding to the flooding misery of thousands. There are warnings that

more bad weather is on its way.